Kokoro Has Too Much Power for Her Own Good
by caynaise
Summary: With the help of Misaki, Hagumi finds an unlikely use for Marie Andromeda. Unfortunately, she doesn't really think things through.


**Originally written for Bandori Rarepair Week 2019, Day 3: Part Time**

* * *

Marie Andromeda is a survivor. When the kids who only knew mascots with no patches and both eyes intact pointed and sneered and left her to fulfill their materialistic fantasies, she kept smiling. When Hagumi went home that day lugging the heavy, scuffed suit behind her, she ran her hands over the rough stitching and kissed Marie's wounds better.

Misaki offered to give her an upgrade, one day. They'd buy new fabric bit by bit, and by the time the next event where the people called on her rolled around, she would be as lovely as all the rest.

Hagumi hummed and thought for a bit, and said she'd mull over it some more.

On another day, four members of HaroHapi sit in the hospital waiting room tapping their feet. Michelle is nowhere to be seen, though she's usually impeccably punctual.

Hagumi's phone jumps to life, and she's greeted by a text from Misaki.

_Sorry, still just barely out of town with Michelle. Train's stranded by a power outage, apparently. No idea when it'll be running again._

"Aww," Kokoro laments, upon hearing the news. "We'll just carry on without her then! We'll make her and Misaki smile all the way from here!"

Hagumi slides off her seat, a bit bummed out. "The kids were so looking forward to seeing Michelle too . . ."

"And they will, next time," says Kanon. "We'll just have to give it our best shot today."

"Yeah . . ." Hagumi slaps her cheeks a few times, and the grin that clears skies and turns monochrome into colour is back. "Let's do it!"

Her phone vibrates again.

_Hey, Hagumi? Just an idea, but what if you guys brought Marie instead of Michelle?_

Hagumi frowns, and texts back. _But Marie scares kids away._

_Not if you teach them not to be scared._

Hagumi twists her mouth to the side, looks up at the ceiling in thought, and decides that's a good idea. She flies out the door and comes back with the suit, and they go in to see the kids. The nurses who pass them eye Marie warily.

As Hagumi feared, Marie comes face to face with a whole lot of blank stares from the children.

"Where's Michelle?" a girl calls out.

"She couldn't come today, but her friend Marie Andromeda is here!" Hagumi says with as much excitement as she can. "She gives great hugs!"

The kids exchange glances. One of them comes forward, a little boy with large, inquisitive eyes. "Are you hurt, Marie? Did you have an operation?"

Hagumi blinks, surprised, and improvises. "Uhh, yeah! And you know what?" She tries to kneel in the suit, to lower herself to his eye level. "She won a competition once! Even though people didn't like the look of her."

"Really? Could I win one too?"

"Yeah! Marie says so!"

With a bit of difficulty but a much lighter heart, Hagumi straightens up, beaming at the other kids, whose faces are beginning to glow with interest.

* * *

Leaning back in her beautifully upholstered chair, Misaki massages her temples. "Let me get this straight. Marie is licensednow too?"

"Yep!" Kokoro pirouettes lightly across the room, eyes dancing. "You can thank Hagumi for the wonderful idea!"

"I wasn't actually specific about it though, and I didn't tell Kokoron to start a whole line of products . . ." Hagumi says, rubbing her neck. "But she did it anyway! You're incredible, Kokoron!"

"Well . . ." Misaki raises an eyebrow at Hagumi. "I didn't expect _this _to happen when I suggested bringing Marie to the hospital, but as long as the people of the town agreed to it, I guess it's a pretty good outcome, huh."

Hagumi grins. "Thanks, Mii-kun! You're the best!"

The temperature in the room seems to rise steeply in a span of seconds, and Misaki quickly breaks eye contact.

* * *

Marie and Michelle set up camp early, just around the corner from the Kitazawa shop, pamphlets and assorted Marie merchandise stacked neatly on a table borrowed from the school. Hagumi can barely stand still, even inside the hefty suit that presses down on her and makes it hard to pick up things. It's her first time doing something like this outside of handing out band flyers, after all! She's even got Michelle with her, helping out despite having no obligation to do so. Michelle is such a nice bear.

The first trickle of passersby starts to appear, and in no time at all the two of them are engaged in conversation with the people. Well, it's mostly Michelle who does the explaining of what Marie represents, and that their earnings will go to the hospital. Hagumi doesn't fully grasp the intricacies of promotion and the like, but all she needs to know is that everyone has a bit of Marie in them. Marie is imperfect, and isn't what most would consider pretty, but there's something about her that got through to the kids at the hospital despite their initial reluctance. It'll get through to everyone, surely, if they try hard enough! To think of the number of people Marie has the power to help, the number of smiles her humble existence can put on faces when she lets children see that they're perfect just the way they are!

It doesn't go quite as she imagined. Some of the people they talk to stand and listen politely for a while, make a half-hearted excuse and take their leave. Others just walk straight past them without so much as a disdainful glance.

Soon the sun is high in the sky and Hagumi is baking inside the suit, sweat running down her face in rivers, and she and Michelle haven't made much headway. Michelle is distracted, having disappeared around a building to take a call. Hagumi can still hear her voice, incredulous and edged with annoyance.

"Kokoro's planning to do _what_?" A pause. "Oh God no, isn't that tree several storeys tall? She's not immortal. Hang on, I'll be right there."

She comes back and waves a pink arm to get Hagumi's attention. "Sorry, I'll be back in a minute!" she calls, and then she's gone, running as fast as her stumpy legs will allow her.

Hagumi massages the stuffing of the suit's hands under a drenched layer of fabric, chewing on her lip.

"Come on Hagumi—no, Marie! You can do this!" she mutters to herself, and bravely approaches the next person who walks by.

No luck, yet again. And again. Michelle reappears beside her, panting, and promptly excuses herself once more to go to the bathroom.

Hagumi sighs, and leans against the table for a moment. The sun is so bright . . . so very bright . . . golden beams rippling and expanding like a loaf of bread in an oven . . . Oh, weird—her head feels all light and floaty now . . . Maybe this is better than being sad that no one wants to bring joy to others' lives . . . She lets her eyelids fall closed . . .

_Thump_.

From a great distance, she hears a familiar, terrified scream of "_HAGUMI_!" right before she drifts off to sleep.

* * *

Misaki's head jerks up the moment she senses movement from the bed. She turns so quickly that she almost pulls a muscle in her neck. "Hagum—"

"Mii . . . kun?" Round brown eyes blink drowsily up at her. Hagumi's face is still sort of pale, but otherwise she seems fine.

"Hagumi, you really scared me there," Misaki admits, sighing in resignation.

"Oh . . . I was too into it, wasn't I? I forgot to drink water."

"Yeah . . ." Misaki gives a tired chuckle, averting her gaze with a restlessness she isn't used to feeling. "I wasn't there to remind you, and neither was Michelle. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it! I should've been more responsible. Sorry I made you worry . . . I should apologise to Michelle too."

Suppressing the inward groan that rises up in her every time she and Michelle are treated as separate entities, Misaki says hastily, "Yeah alright, I'll tell her. We're just relieved you're okay though."

"Where am I? The hospital?"

"Yeah." Oh, the irony of it. "They'll let you out in a bit."

"Do my—Do my parents know about this?"

Shame doesn't suit Hagumi. Not at all. Misaki wants to reach out and muss her rumpled hair and turn her frown upside down. Just an inexplicable passing urge from the heat and dehydration, she supposes.

"No. I don't think they picked up the phone."

"Oh. Okay."

Misaki had the next part of her grand speech all planned out—she'd run it through in her head enough times to recite it without hesitation—but all of a sudden the vulnerability in the downturned corners of Hagumi's lips makes the job a lot harder.

"Hey look, I—" Something gets lodged in her throat, and she swallows and tries again. "I don't think you should keep doing this." She looks away before Hagumi can react.

"Huh? Why?"

Of course. The 'why.' She can't just say that seeing Hagumi's face crumble when good old reality deals her a cruel blow rubs her the wrong way. That gets way up in her personal space, and besides, it's not like she's even taken one look at Hagumi's face since this morning. Yes, that's the worst thing. It's all in her head.

How she wishes this troublesome band had never caught her in its clutches and made her see a world that stretched far, far beyond the ordinary and mundane.

"It's just not . . . you, I guess," she says, when the silence has dragged on for too long, and Hagumi begins to look mystified. "What you did here before, with Marie and the kids, that was you. That's what you're best at. You bounce off people who want to be heard and understood, who need that optimistic kick to get moving. Not the ones who don't care."

"But I want them to care."

"You can't always have that, Hagumi."

"I know."

"Look—"

"I know, Mii-kun!"

Misaki swears she has a time machine hidden somewhere. No one can sit up that fast.

"I know it wasn't working out anyway. Never mind that! Marie belongs to the people, after all. Just like you and Michelle belong in HaroHapi!"

Dammit. Misaki really wishes Hagumi wouldn't be so casually inclusive. Even if this is the recognition she's so seldom given. Her poor heart simply isn't ready.

Will she ever catch a break?


End file.
